Join the Peace Corps

I don’t want to answer a lot of questions about what went on, so I will pass on to all of you how we stayed in contact while overseas: blogspot.
mine was:
www.chrisjamieburkina.blogspot.com

a friend who is still there:
http://lizjordan.blogspot.com/

There are so many of us departing in the next two months. I am wondering how the rest of you are doing with packing lists and preparations for storing your stuff.
It was pretty easy to find other online groups dedicated to countries of assignment, and joining them really helped me prepare for the next, more specific steps.
It makes the whole experience so much less mysterious, to be able to contact the other people who will be going to the country with you and chatting about which books to bring, what tent to buy, what sort of charging system you need, etc. If you haven’t found your group yet, do a search on Yahoo Groups, or create one yourself and post it here.
If no-one else has told you, Chaco’s are 50% off for Peace corps volunteers, and Cascade Designs gives us a pro-discount. you have to contact the companies directly, friends@cascadedesigns.com…. not sure how to ask for the Chaco deal though…

Hello all my friends,
We have turned in our aspiration statements, resumes, passport and visa applications, and it truly seems that all the requirements have been met. Now we wait again.
We have worked out storage issues with my in-laws and I have to sell my wonderful Passat. The cats have a possible home, and we are very worried about their futures, maybe more than our own at this point.
I get to turn an upcoming business trip into a visit to my family in Arkansas to say good-bye and see their cocmplete puzzlement at my decision to go to Africa. They, mostly, cannot fathom the reason for leaving a good job and comfort for the very ideal of poverty. They are relatively poor in my family..
I have one question still: should we bring up a recent non-health impacting visit to the dermatologist? We get scared by the line in our invitation letters saying that non-disclosure, as confirmed by the FBI, will be punished by dismissal from the Peace Corps. The matter seems trivial but…
I have appreciated this site during the months of uncertainty. Funny, but now that the uncertainty is past, I don’t feel the need to come here anymore? Anyone else experience this?

teaching secondary science education (husband)
teaching girls education and empowerment (wife)

staging on June 4th. to anyone who hasn’t seen one yet, the invitation packet is really big. You need two months to get it all finished, or at least that long to wait for it to get finished.

Burkina Faso is very, very poor, and hot very, very hot, and dry. We looked at satelite photos of the capital on maps.google.com, and half the streets are unpaved. he-he.
It is a beautiful country, with lots of elephants.
No bugs or bats to eat though…mangoes and millet.

two months to offload everything we own…......

two months to sell a car that my bank owns.

Okay, yesterday I got a call from our placement officer in D.C. We have an assignment.
Western Africa, me: a science teacher (in French), Jamie (my wife): girls education and enpowerment. Leaves in June.

So, we’ve been fixated on this for almost a year and a half, but now I am scared, financially scared. That’s 10 weeks to pay off all debts and sell two cars, find storage for what we need to keep, find a great home for our cats, continue to work in high-stress jobs and learn French.

I could use some advice.

Hi everyone. I am curious how much foreign language training you all have. I want to understand better how the Corps uses it to place volunteers into host countries.
Anyone fluent in a foreign language? Anyone a total novice?

JessPon in Zambia, travelnman85 in Samoa… Help me out please

It is my main obstacle right now, since I took French in high school 13 years ago. My wife apparently is up to snuff..

Yesterday we got an email from our placement officer, asking if we’d taken any new French classes. We haven’t. Shoot! I guess our good intention to buy Rosetta Stone isn’t good enough.

We seem to be sooo close to getting an invitation, but I have a rather important job in Biotech. My photo is me at my desk at work, Don’t I look miserable? Anyway, they expect me to take on more and more long-term goals for the company, and each one requires studying and company money. Yes, I feel guilty, and really uninterested. I’m joining the Peace Corps! I don’t want to fill up my head with the super detail saturation that these start-ups require.
Should I tell my boss and co-workers that I am trying to join the Peace Corps?

In attempt to help any person who is just starting to think about the Peace Corps I am passing along the book list that my placement officer gave me. They are really helpful in understanding the less-than-romantic reality of living out there. I think this list was tailored to our Africa region placement, but the first book is really helpful for anyone.

1. So You Want to Join the Peace Corps: What to Know Before You Go by Dillon Banerjee
2. The Travelers’ Guide to African Customs & Manners: How to converse, dine, tip, drive, bargain, dress, make friends, and conduct business while in sub-Saharan Africa by Elizabeth Devine & Nancy Braganti
3. The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski
4. The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith

I have others only for Africa, if anyone wants it.

My wife and I are at the stage where we are talking to our country placement officer, and she was kind of unfriendly in trying to clarify my essays. I thought it impossible for anyone to think that I was prejudiced, but the line “it doesn’t matter what nationality my boss is” set off alarms. i had to dictate a new explanitory statement over the phone to say “I am not a racist!” in a clever way. She was cold to me, kinda scary, like I could easily ruin it for us.
Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Should I worry?